New York joins fight to elect US president by popular vote

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed legislation that could help revamp future presidential elections by agreeing to award the state’s 29 electoral votes to the candidate that is most favored on a national level.

The addition of Gov. Cuomo’s signature to a bill on Tuesday adds
New York to a list of states who are signing on to what’s known
as the National Popular Vote movement, joining ten other
jurisdictions: California, the District of Columbia, Hawaii,
Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island,
Vermont and Washington.

Currently, the United States presidential election is decided
every four years by accounting for all the ballots cast in each
of the 50 states (and DC) and then awarding the winning candidate
with the electoral votes allocated to that specific region.
During the 2012 election, for example, incumbent Barack Obama
received roughly 63 percent of the popular vote in New York and
was thusly awarded all 29 of the Empire State’s electoral votes;
challenger Mitt Romney received zero electoral votes, despite
garnering the support of more than one-third of voters in the
state.

According to the US Constitution, every state has the right to
award its electoral votes in any manner it deems appropriate. But
New York is now the latest state to speak out against the current
procedure and says it will pledge its 29 electoral tallies to
whoever wins the popular vote nationally. Instead of awarding
those 29 points to the person who performs best in New York — a
traditionally democratic, or “blue” state — it will go to the
candidate that collected the most support on a national scale.

“With the passage of this legislation, New York is taking a
bold step to fundamentally increase the strength and fairness of
our nation’s presidential elections,” Governor Cuomo said in
a statement that accompanied his signing of the
bill this week. “By aligning the Electoral College with the
voice of the nation’s voters, we are ensuring the equality of
votes and encouraging candidates to appeal to voters in all
states, instead of disproportionately focusing on early contests
and swing states."

“Joining the compact gives us leverage over presidential candidates,” added
State Sen. Joseph Griffo (R-Rome). “Collectively, we say: You
can no longer take our states for granted. You can no longer
effectively disenfranchise millions of Americans by ignoring us.
And you can no longer assume our vote is yours.”

Combined, the 11 states that have agreed to the national popular
vote pact have a total of 165 electoral votes, with New York’s 29
being the second most pledged behind California’s 55.

Election Day isn’t going to dramatically change just yet,
however. The 11 states involved won’t formally adopt the new rule
until it has a combined total of 270 electoral votes. The
addition of New York to the group has officially bumped the count
past the half-way mark, though, and now the movement has 61
percent of the electoral votes needed.

Hendrik Hertzberg — a writer for the New Yorker who has written exhaustively on
the National Popular Vote movement — said this week that it’s
“quite possible — even probable” that the 270 electoral
votes will be collected in time for the 2020 presidential race,
if not sooner.

Speaking to Democracy Now! this week, Hertzberg said the
addition of New York is an “important step” in the
movement.

“New York is the media capital. Things don’t really happen in
the brain of the media until they happen in New York,” he
said. “So even though California, New Jersey [and the] state
of Washington — even though all these other states have already
signed on, it’s only now starting to raise to the level of some
sort of public attention.”

”I am particularly heartened to sign this legislation as it
embodies both in process and substance the Empire State’s
tradition as a national progressive leader,” Gov. Cuomo said
of the news. “I am pleased to add New York to the growing
list of states who have joined together to make this reform a
reality.”